Letter 5054: I delight in the regular frequency of your letters and draw abundant joy from this gift.
I delight in the regular frequency of your letters and draw abundant joy from this gift. Each one arrives like a visit from a friend -- brief, perhaps, but welcome beyond measure. Let us keep this rhythm, for the steadiness of our correspondence is itself a form of constancy. In an inconstant world, the reliable arrival of a friend's letter is a small miracle.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
Sermonis vestri adsiduitate delector et abunde ex eo munere usurpo laetitiam.
quod enim vel vestri animi specimen vel mei desiderii solamen potest esse praeclarius,
quam ut apud me in dies singulos meritorum vestrorum cultus augescat? amicitia
10 enim, quae celebratur officiis, numquam certo fine contenta est; atque ideo decet vos
in deferendis alloquiis effici promptiores, cum ad solvendam vicissitudinem non probetis
immemorem.
AD LICINIVM. PVM
LXXII (LXX).
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1. I do not feel pleasure in writing of the subjects which I was wont to discuss; I am not at liberty to write of new themes. I see that the one would not suit you, and that for the other I have no leisure.